Falling Snow, Erupting Ice: Clash of the Raging Flame and the Violent Storm
First Impressions "Well," Knave Dhahaka mused as he looked over the frozen landscape, "I've had worse places to battle." The young green-haired mage was standing atop one of the numerous large 'islands' of ice that had risen up from the also-frozen ground. The islands seemed to stretch out and extend for quite a distance, before reaching a massive mountain plane that extended to the horizon itself. Even on the massive pseudo-continents, the snow falling from the sky still collected, creating an odd white-on-blue effect that was pleasing to the eye but also somewhat blinding should you have arrived there recently. On top of one of the massive ice structures was a large castle, apparently also comprised of the crystallized water, though it was a distance away from where Knave had stood. The marimo had broken off from his friends and companions once again, in order to take part in the battle that beckoned him every single year, a battle that had so far delivered upon him nothing but defeat. And yet, Knave felt no particular sadness or regret over his defeats and losses against other Dragon Slayers. It wasn't as if he had been defeated by someone he considered an enemy. If anything, he had just been disappointed that he hadn't made the cut, but it wasn't something he could entirely help. If they were stronger than him, then they would move up. And he would grow from the fight, in some way, shape, or form. "Besides, I wanna see if I'll run into ''that'' guy again," Knave muttered as he put the small paper that had lead him to the location in his pocket. He quickly exhaled, unleashing a small jet of frozen air from his lungs and back out into the world, before looking upwards again and keeping his body poised like a spring, ready for an attack to come at any time. In the distance a boom could be heard. Anyone looking at the source could see plume after plume of snow the was shot up into the air, like dust in a dust storm. Another boom, another plume of snow, this time closer to Knave. Anyone looking could very well see that the plumes were getting closer, as the plume exploded right in front of Knave. "Oh, man. I jumped a little to high that time," a voice said from in the plume of snow. As the snow settled back against the ground a young orange haired man stood, shaking snow off of his black fur collared jacket, his hair was now wet and matted to his face. The young man ran his hands through his hair, his hair being completely dry by the time he finished. The man noticed Knave a few seconds later before he looked down at a piece of paper in his hand, "Well, I guess this is the spot, and you must be my opponent. I'm Vance Kervic. Do you want to introduce yourself, or do you just want to jump straight to fighting?" "Knave Dhahaka," Knave answered simply, turning around and giving his opponent a grin, "and I'm ready whenever you're ready!" Vance grinned himself, he liked the spunk and attitude of the young man before him. In an instant Vance released his magical power rapidly melting and evaporating the snow surrounding the two wizards, using the mist like a smokescreen. Like a flash of light Vance was gone, behind Knave like light as he brought his hands down on the young Dragon Slayers head, sending him crashing into the hard ice below the fresh snow. "Come on kid, I know that wasn't enough to stop you." Vance called to Knave in a knowing tone. Vance braced himself for what he was to come, he could feel it, he was anticipating it, and he couldn't wait. From where he was lying on the ground, Knave let out a bright and cheery laugh. "Ha! Darn right it wasn't!" The young marimo quickly in took a great amount of breath, and promptly released it! "Storm Dragon's Roar!" A massive amount of wind and lightning, perfectly combined, exploded out of his mouth and knocked him straight into the air, creating a shockwave of air around the area. Now flung into the air, the young man abruptly cut the roar off and lifted up his own hand, surrounding it with even more storm. "Storm Dragon's...." he said under his breath as the storm circled around his wrist, slowly gaining a cutting edge as he released it, still gripping it slightly with his fingers. "WAIL SHURIKEN!" he called, hurling it down towards the opposing Dragon Slayer, the attack striking him with a great amount of fury. Vance stood there, taking Knave's attack head on. Vance was blown backwards slamming into the hard ice. Still laying on the ground Vance let loose a howling laugh, he felt something he hadn't felt in a while — exhilaration. He was going to enjoy this fight. Vance exploded from the ground, launching himself into the air as an orange glow began forming around his right hand. Vance pointed his hand towards Knave "Fire Dragon's Gun" Vance called as a powerful blast of fire hurled itself towards him. HIs opponent reacted as quickly as he could, giving a brief push off the ground and sending his body dancing to the side as the blast of fire skimmed over his head, warming up but not delivering true damage to him as he took in his own deep amount of breath and launched another Storm Dragon's Roar towards Vance. Vance saw Knave's roar coming towards him as he inhaled a breath deeper than any normal roar. Jumping straight into the oncoming roar Vance used his own spell, "Fire Dragon's Devastation," Vance called as Knave's roar was over whelmed and swallowed by a torrent of fire that looked like it was coming from a dragon itself, the flames swallowing Knave's spell and continuing towards him. Vance positioned himself below and behind on the ground, waiting for what the young Dragon Slayer would do next, despite the numbness that he felt through his body from jumping into his opponents attack. "Tch..." Knave let out a small growl as he built he lip, waiting for the attack to reach him. Right before they did, the young Dragon Slayer extended both of his arms and generated a massive amount of storm. "Storm Dragon's..." he began as he pulled it around him, increasing the output to compensate for the power of the flames as they slowly formed into a large spearhead of sorts, "Tornado Ram!" With that cry, Knave launched himself into the roar, the storm acting as both shield and sword as he slowly pushed through it, cutting through it bit by bit as he moved faster and faster towards his enemy's location. Still numb from jumping into Knave's roar, Vance pondered what he should do next. "Damn, what to do," Vance thought to himself as he tried to move his left leg. It wouldn't budge. As Vance though his opposition was getting closer and closer. Letting out a sigh, Vance began releasing white light from his entire person as it enveloped him, forming a cloak upon his body. "I just need to stop some of its power, cause I really don't want to take that head on," Vance said to himself in a hushed tone as the cloak surrounding his body began to glow. Four large hands made of white light extended from the cloak surrounding Vance, two were positioned directly in front of Vance just a few feet away from his body as the other two were used to grasp the incoming spell. "I don't know if this'll stop it completely but then again I only need to absorb some of the impact. Whether or not that will even happen, I don't know, so lets just see what you've got kid." Vance said in another hushed tone, speaking more to himself than his opponent. Noticing that Vance had seized the spell itself, Knave concentrated for a minute, as the surrounding parts of the spell disconnected from the storm surrounding his hand in order to occupy the hands, while he continued to press forward with a greater amount of force than before! Knave cried out as he increased the spin of the storm surrounding just his fist, causing it to take more of a drill shape as he twisted his wrist slightly as well, completing the drill shape as he put a sudden burst of force into his legs, launching his fist forward into something more akin to a punch rather than the previous charge. Still paralyzed, Vance's left knee gave out from his struggle to stop his opponents attack. Vance pondered about what to do. Trying to move his arms, Vance noticed a slight amount of responsiveness. Moving both of his arms, getting them so that they were held directly out in front of his body, Vance let out a labored gasp. "Well there's something." Vance though to himself. Hands held out in front of his body, Vance channeled his white light into his arms before sending out a multitude of smaller hands, along with two large, dragon-like claws that grasped the new attack, but to no real avail, no matter what Vance tried at this point. Vance knew that with his body paralyzed he was little more than helpless, he also knew that he was going to get his with this attack, and he knew that once he took this attack and recovered, he was going to get serious. "BRING IT ON!" Vance hollered, he was braced for his opponents attack, he just hoped that his opponent was ready for what would come next. "HELL YEAH!" Knave shot back, maxing out the storm that his hand was releasing as much as he could before plunging it straight at Vance! Knave's attack finally broke through Vance's defenses, Vance taking the biggest brunt of the attack. Hitting the ground hard, Vance bounced a few meters from his previous location, landing in a large bundle of snow. "I knew that was goin' to hurt like hell." Vance said on a groan. Still paralyzed, Vance was ready to use one of his aces'. White light enveloped Vance's body before it seemingly exploded from every pore on his body before it dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. Vance slowly stood, dusting the snow off of him, at least the snow that hadn't already melted, Vance cracked his neck. Now standing, Vance looked over himself. Noticing a few injuries, mostly minor, a few scrapes here, a bruise or two there, Vance turned his attention to the most severe of wounds, the ones on his arms from that last attack. Vance grinned at Knave, "Well kid, I think playtime is over." Internally, Vance had started to force his fire throughout his body via his veins, on the outside though Vance was starting to go through a drastic change; his body was starting to seep fire, forming a cloak around his body. "Flame Drive." Vance announced. "Get ready cause here I come." Vance was gone, just— gone. He appeared behind Knave, his hand on fire as he swung it towards the back of his opponents neck, if Vance's strike landed it was over, the force being carried in his attack, and in his Drive state would shatter a diamond hard substance like glass, and no telling what it would do to a flesh and blood body. Thinking quickly, Knave shot a sudden burst of storm from his foot, slicing through the ice beneath them and causing that part of the ice to crack and toppled off. Leaping off the falling ice, the marimo twisted through the air and turned around so that he was facing Vance, before letting a grin appear on his face. "Storm Drive." With that, a small cloak or aura of storm wrapped around Knave's form, being just thin enough that he could still be seen clearly through it, the lightning given off by it chipping at the ice that was still falliing around him and at times shattering it completely. This done, he lifted up his hand slowly, allowing a much larger amount of storm to gather around his fist, spinning into a conical shape once more. "Storm Dragon's..." he said... "Microburst!" He punched forward with the storm, causing it to leap off his fist and fly through the air, moving at incredible speeds as it shot towards his opponent. With his speed and perception enhanced by his Drive Knave's attack seemed to move at a slowed pace to Vance, giving him enough time to dodge it and charge at his opponent. Closing the distance between him and his opponent, Vance bent his knees and pushed off the ground, launching himself into the air as he called out, "Fire Dragon's Roar," opening his mouth and releasing a large blast of fire. Letting the blast of fire close in on his opponent, Vance landed on the ground and charged his opposition again, this time intent on grabbing him so as to use his next spell. Rather than attempting a dodge or some other maneuver, Knave simply surrounded his body with a massive amount of storm and crashed into and through the spell, aiming to grapple with Vance on even ground once they met in the center. Continuing his charge, Vance broke through the storm created by his opponent, managing to grab ahold of Knave's color with his left hand. Smirking, Vance asked Knave, "You ready kid?" Vance pulled his right arm back, ready to throw the first punch. Vance struck, letting his fist fly intending to punch Knave in the jaw with enough force to break the bones. "Damn right I am," Knave grinned back, aiming his own punch to collide with Vance's. Vance's grin widened, turning into a full, ear to ear smile. The two combatants fists collided, sending a large shockwave of air rushing out in all directions. Vance could tell that he had the greater power to his strike. Pulling back instantly, Vance cocked his hand back again, and again let it loose with the same amount of force as before. "I like your spunk kid, Lets just see how much punishment you can really take, shall we." Vance said on a loud, boisterous laugh, he wasn't laughing at Knave, he was just enjoying himself greatly. "If that's the best your punch can do, then I can take a ton of it!" Knave laughed as well, having also recognized the greater amount of strength in Vance's punch, and scaled up his own strength to match and hopefully exceed his in the next blow. Vance pulled his punch, pulling his arm back, cocking it again. This time Vance let his fist fly with twice the force as before, his muscles flexing. Vance's punch had lost some speed, but was making up for it with an increase in power, this punch would normally fatally wound a normal mage in an instant, Vance wasn't sure how it would effect another Dragon Slayer. "Man, kid, I haven't had this much fun in a while." Vance told Knave on another laugh, truly enjoying himself, but Vance knew that he needed to get really serious, very soon. Their fists collided, and Knave's hand nearly buckled back, but rather than retreating for another blow, the marimo lad simply put a great deal more strength into his current punch, raising it to match Vance's and then attempting to overcoem his strike. "Same here!" he answered, though there was no trace of upcoming seriousness in his overall demeanor. Pulling his fist back from their last clash and despite having fun Vance realized that he needed to start finishing up, lest he use more of his magic. "Hey, kid, wanna turn the fun up another notch?" Vance asked his opponent, following the question with an attempt to strike Knave in his left side with his right knee. "Sure!" Knave answered, quickly lifting both his own knee and elbow to intercept and block the attack. Despite being blocked Vance's attack still sent Knave flying in the other direction, crashing into a mound of snow and ice. "Alright kid, I think it's time we finish this up." Vance yelled to Knave. Jumping back Vance let his Drive deactivate, returning him to his original state, "Here we go kid, get ready." Crossing his arms in front of his body Vance called out, "Second Origin, release," as his body was soon enveloped by a powerful surge of magic that cracked the ice straight down to the ground beneath it from the sheer force of magic released from Vance's person. Finally subsiding, Vance's body became visible again. Holding out both of his arms, palms open, Vance began channeling both of his elements, fire in his right hand and white light in his left hand, each element forming into a highly compressed sphere in the palm of his hands. After the magic was condensed in his hands Vance started releasing a multitude of individual spheres of his magic from his hands, a massive mixture of orange and white colored spheres surrounded Knave. As soon as Knave was surrounded in the two different colored orbs, Vance began his attack; an orange orb shot towards Knave's face while a white one came up from below him attempting to strike him in the chin, at the same time more and more began to charge at Knave; one headed towards his head, a few headed towards his midsection, his knees, until he was essentially surrounded by a volley-like attack with almost no possible way of defending himself. "Ah nuts," Knave grinned as he looked towards all the attacks heading towards him, "I kinda wanted to bust out my Ultimate Art for this, but this attack isn't really its expertise... Then..." He ducked down, allowing storm to explode all around him and completely surround his body, before clapping his hands together. "Storm Dragon's Secret Art..." His hand seperated briefly, assuming a position as if they were gripping a weapon, as all the storm wrapped in that area and snapped into the form of a scythe. That done and with only milliseconds left before the attack reached him, Knave began whipping the scythe around, striking at all of the orbs as they came near him as fast as he possibly could, batting them away or slicing them in half, only allowing a very small amount of them to deal glancing blows, as only one actually managed to land in an area around his knee. The art of deflecting them done, Knave reeled back slightly, now grabbing the scythe with one hand, as it bulged slightly with him adding a bit more storm to it. Still smiling, Knave threw it forward towards Vance as hard as it could, a speed far surpassing his previous strikes. "Debilitating Storm Scythe!" With his opponents attack closing in fast Vance needed to think quick. Without breaking his current stance, Vance released a few more of his orange and white orbs directly in front of himself, creating a wall of them. As the opposing attack was just about to make contact Vance mentally commanded his orbs to strike each other, setting off a powerful chain reaction, the blast all but stopping the incoming scythe of magic. Jumping at the exact time of the explosion, Vance was largely unharmed with the exception of a large gash in his right leg that was bleeding. Sending out a few more of his orbs, an even mixture of orange and white, Vance launched them at the ground surrounding his opponent, the orbs exploding upon contact with the ground, destabilizing where Knave was standing. Deciding to use a different spell, Vance ignited both of his hands, forearms and elbows before he repositioned himself fin the air and expelled a vast amount of fire from his feet, propelling him towards his opponent. Once within range Vance let loose a barrage of punches, with each one that even had a glancing blow causing more fire to be expelled from Vance's elbows. "Ha!" Knave laughed as Vance rushed towards him, then quickly clapped his hands together. Another massive aura of storm exploded around him, though Vance's fists managed to break through in places and land strikes on Knave, with the young man ignoring the pain, "let's see if I can finish this another way... Dragon Slayer's Secret Art..." He took a deep breath, lifting up his hands. "Aeolus's Sword: Peace Bringer!" He swung his hands forward, releasing a massive and almost jagged line of storm that ripped through the unsteady ground and the sky around it, aiming straight through the middle of Vance's punches and going straight for the top of his head. Vance knew that this would hurt, releasing as much of his magical power that he could spare and took his opponents attack head on. Using his magic to dissipate some of Knave's Vance was thrown violently backwards, slamming into a large chuck of ice. Vance didn't stay there to long, erupting from the ice and launching himself up into the air, Vance now covered in blood from various cuts and gashes across his body, his shirt and coat now torn to bits. Realizing that this would probably be one of his last attacks, thinking for but a moment Vance assessed his current level of magic, he could feel that he only had enough power to use one more spell after this next one, the next attack would have to be the end all. Despite the great amount of pain that Vance felt tear through his body from the last attack, Vance called down to his opponent, "Lets end this kid!" Vance dive bombed Knave, landing directly in front of him, Vance expelled a massive quantity of fire from his body as he placed his hand to the ground, channeling his flames into it. A second later the ground shook as a massive shockwave ripped through the air, shattering the surrounding ice, even crumbling the castle in the distance from its force as the ground began to glow red for less than a second, the chances of escaping now were practically nonexistent at this point, as a massive amount of red flames erupted from beneath Vance and Knave in the shape of a Kanata's tip before it violently exploded. Unable to avoid the strike, Knave simply unleashed his magical energy to his greatest extent, surrounding himself in a massive amount of storm that took the flame head on, the storm acting as a shield while the flames wrapped around him, shredding parts of the barrier while other bits managed to break through entirely, striking at Knave and leaving deep burn marks in his flesh. However, he managed to withstand the attack, though now covered in dust and burns, with a small helping of blood there as he panted... and yet, the storm remained wrapped around him, the man having sacrified his physical defense in order to keep the magical energy wrapped around him. "Heavenward... Tempestuous Drill.... PLUS!" That done, Knave opened his mouth, letting out a loud battle cry as he marshalled every last drop of magical energy within him, the storm whipping around him and slowly acquiring the ship of a massive drill of sorts, shaking and looking on the verge of exploding. Continuing the cry, he tilted it forward and launched it forward, shooting through the now smoke and dust-filled space and aiming directly at Vance, putting his own all into this attack! Category:Zeon1 Category:KILLER5591 Category:Dragon Slayer Royale Category:Collaberation